Sunday, March 11, 2007

Cinequest - Day 11 - Final Engagment?

There's a gift book published every year that's called 365 things to be thankful for. Here are a few excerpts: No. 13 long warm baths, No. 49 birthdays, No. 171 long weekends to catch up with your family, No. 210 fridays. I'd like to propose something for next year's book. No. 366 Checking out of the Clarion Hotel in San Jose, CA.

130pm. Camera 12 Cinema. Our final engagement here at Cinequest. Alex and Katie leave tonight. Tony and Julie left before the screening. Adam and I leave for San Francisco today for the final leg of our trip. To be grandiose a temporary Blood Car diaspora. How cruel. I'm sorry to see it come to an end. I'll miss the San Jose sun and the harmless light rail system, the Pita Pit and congregating filmmakers and film lovers. Tall palm trees, new places, new people, new transit, overcrowding cabs at 2am, free drinks, free internet, putting up posters, trying to convince complete strangers to see our film. Cinequest is a planet. Every film festival is. Where no one does anything except eat, drink, sleep, watch movies, talk about movies, how they're made, how they're painful, how they're fun, how you have to fight for them, die for them, love them and kiss them, and sleep with them and give birth to them. The cinema is an ecosystem, a civilization. There should be a board game called Cinema, that's equal parts Life and equal parts Risk. Milton Bradley, are you listening?

We passed out postcards before our 130pm screening, trying to fill the seats but worrying we got too late a start beginning at 1pm. Well, we hoped for the best and saw people lining up at the box office. The lines were long and we overheard, "One for blood car", "Two for Blood Car", "Three for Blood Car, two adults and one child."

Simply put, SOLD OUT! SOLD OUT! PEOPLE TURNED AWAY! SITTING IN THE AISLES AND ON THE FLOOR! SOLD OUT!It was a gratifying end to our premiere festival engagement. So wonderful. So fantastic. Katie watched the movie with her sister Rachel, but Alex and Adam left to play bocce ball at the Hotel Montgomery. I went to St. Joseph's Cathedral Basilica to try and light a candle for the great filmmakers who are no longer with us, but they're weren't any candles there. So I sat down and admired the beauty of this place. I sat and sat...

Alex triumphed in bocce ball over Adam and we returned to watch the end of the movie and participate in the Q&A. A few things amazed us about this screening. There were about a dozen people there who had already seen the movie once. They came to see it again. Again. Twice in one week. And there was a child in the movie theater with his parents. Age range 9-11. What kind of child are these parents raising? A sociopath? Perhaps. But remember, Quentin Tarantino saw Deliverance with his mom at age 8. Sociopathic? Well, close. Someone asked what my next project was. I told them and I'll tell you I'm in talks to play a seventeen year old mentally challenged boy whose medication is a time machine. Most people wait a while in their careers for this kind of role, but I'm going for broke with this project. Wes Craven is set to direct.

Since our show was a matinee, our after party was calm and contented with just a small group of us. Here's Alex. Everyone had sunglasses except Adam. Here's Adam. After this, we parted ways, Alex and Katie to the hotel to wait and hang out before having to drive to SF for the airport and Adam, Tova and I to SF to hang out and see the sights. We hugged and said, "See you in Atlanta."

Once in San Francisco, Adam and I were showed our humble quarters. The view from the kitchen took our breath away. This is a real city, like something from a storybook. As the sun set over the Mission District, where we were to stay, we went to a place called the Sky Terrace, which is a rooftop patio with Mediterranean fare and a gorgeous view of SF. Unbelievable.

But greater than the view was a restaurant next door called Foreign Cinema. Yes, a restaurant called Foreign Cinema. It didn't seem real at first. It just looked like a wall with movie graffitti from Breathless, Lady from Shanghai and Rear Window, but through the door was a hole in the wall restaurant. Well, the rear of the restaurant is an open air patio at street level. At the very back is a white wall where they project movies while you eat. And this was no small wall. Think drive-in. Tonight's movie: Breakfast at Tiffany's. I am not lying. Again, like something out of a storybook. I credit Adam for this discovery. I was at the bar waiting to buy a glass of overpriced wine when Adam came up to me and said, "Can you come over here for minute? I need to show you something." The latter sentence is probably one of my favorites sentences. It's so loaded and romantic and suspenseful. We watched a little of George Peppard and Audrey from our rooftop patio next door. It was unforgettable.

The night's most comical moment came just as we were about to leave the Sky Terrace. The busboy approached our table and was clearing our glasses. He was wearing a black t-shirt with the metal band Dragonforce's name emblazoned across it. I yelled and pointed to it, "Dragonforce!" (The song that plays on the BC trailer is by Dragonforce.) There's a little piece about them a few blogs back. Apparently, Dragonforce fans are few and far between because he seemed surprised we knew who they were and were so excited about them. But as he walked away, Adam said he heard the busboy say, "You guys made my night." He must think we're big fans, though if Adam and I ever showed up at metal show looking the way we usually do, we'd probably be murdered.